The Morning Stroll

After using moving as an excuse and taking the summer off from much of any exercise, I have started taking my morning walk again.  I have had no luck in removing sugary goodness from my life (thank you, Crystel), so I figure that a 20 - 30 minute walk may compensate for my steady diet of candy, monkey bread (thank you again, Crystel) and ice cream.

Who doesn't appreciate the thin line between a dream and denial?

Anyway ~

It's roughly 1-3/4 miles up our driveway, to the county road, up to the main road and back again.  Nearly every day there is something new to see.

This is the hill from our driveway to John, our nearest neighbor.  I tired hard to get an angle to make the hill look steeper than it really is.  The first few mornings, I was tempted to stop and rest.  Or go back home, make another cup of coffee to go with my monkey bread and try again the next day.

I don't take Roxy with me because I don't want her to get familiar with that route and then think she can go off on her own without me.  She loves, loves, loves to be outside, and so far we have been able to keep her within a decent range of the house.  She does look up the driveway with a sad puppy dog look on her face that says, ‘but I want to see what is up there!’

Most of the time I do take my camera.  There were a couple of times that I didn't take it and I ended up being sorry.  Randy insists that I take my phone in case I fall and break my ankle.  Then I remembered that I had a camera on my phone.  I took this picture with my phone.  Not too bad.

Randy and I have met only one of our neighbors.  That would be John, he who lives at the top of the hill.  The hill that darn near killed me.  He stopped me yesterday as he was driving out to the main road.  I was just past my halfway point and he stopped to chat a minute.  Luckily, my breathing had returned to normal.  

Later in the afternoon, John walked down to our house to visit with Randy.  John is in his 80's, is a recent widower and has lived here for almost 20 years.  I got the distinct impression that he came to get acquainted with Randy and not me, so Roxy and I went in the house to take a nap.

Anyway ~

One neighbor has quite the resin zoo of forest animals.  There are a couple of deer, and eagle, a cougar or wild cat of some kind and the prerequisite squirrel or two.  There even is a bear chained to the house.

I make no judgement on how people decorate the inside or the outside of their home.  I am just observing my surroundings.

This is the view of Lake Norfolk that another neighbor has.  Beautiful.

Another house has a ‘Beware of Dog’ sign in their driveway.  

This is the dog.

Seriously, beware of this dog?  Fido barks at me occasionally when I walk by.  He has never bothered to get up and check me out.  With that amount of fur wind resistance alone would prevent him from moving at any speed and gaining any ground on me.  

Poor thing, it needs Stacy and Clinton from ‘What Not To Wear’ in the worst way.

The best thing about my morning walk?  No, it’s not finishing my walk and getting home without falling down.

It is Randy and Roxy meeting me in the clearing above our driveway.

That and Randy making the bed while I am walking.

Have the BEST day ever!

~ Dorothy